Who invented the microchip ?

Answer 1

Invention of the Microchip - Integrated Circuit

It seems that the integrated circuit was destined to be invented. Two separate inventors, unaware of each other's activities, invented almost identical integrated circuits or ICs at nearly the same time.

Jack Kilby, an engineer with a background in ceramic-based silk screen circuit boards and transistor-based hearing aids, started working for Texas Instruments in 1958. A year earlier, research engineer Robert Noyce had co-founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. From 1958 to 1959, both electrical engineers were working on an answer to the same dilemma: how to make more of less.

In designing a complex electronic machine like a computer it was always necessary to increase the number of components involved in order to make technical advances. The monolithic (formed from a single crystal) integrated circuit placed the previously separated transistors, resistors, capacitors and all the connecting wiring onto a single crystal (or 'chip') made of semiconductor material. Kilby used germanium and Noyce used silicon for the semiconductor material.

In 1959 both parties applied for patents. Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments received U.S. patent #3,138,743 for miniaturized electronic circuits. Robert Noyce and the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation received U.S. patent #2,981,877 for a silicon based integrated circuit. The two companies wisely decided to cross license their technologies after several years of legal battles, creating a global market now worth about $1 trillion a year.

Answer 2

The microchip was less an invention than a natural progression of technology - smaller electrical components were needed in the 1950s to fit in aircraft and spacecraft, but also for consumer goods. As transistors replaced vacuum tubes, doing the same job in a fraction of the space, designers began wishing for increasingly smaller components. But above all, the Cold War instigated scientists working on military missile projects to seek out the smallest, lightest possible circuits which are "Microchips"

Answer 3

I thought Steve Jobs had something to do with it.

Answer 4

McCains invented them didnt they

Answer 5

A guy named Jack Kilby, working for Fairchild electronics in the late 1950's fabricated a crude oscillator out of a single piece of silicon. It had a planar transistor, some resistors, and a crude capacitor on the "chip".

He is credited with making the first IC.

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Answer 6

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce in 1959 with commercial applications soon afterwards

Answer 7

MacDonalds?

Answer 8

Someone with a poweful microscope and a steady hand.

Answer 9

an alien we just copied their handywork....
he wernt ginger anyway....